Union officials say the city is holding a new contract with NYPD sergeants hostage unless the union agrees to work 12-hour tours — a nonstarter the Sergeants Benevolent Association says would endanger both their members and the public.
After two years of negotiations, the SBA leadership had signed a memorandum of agreement on a contract with the city they were preparing to put out to members for a vote. But at the eleventh hour the city announced that the new contract couldn’t go forward unless NYPD sergeants agree to 12-hour tours, President Vincent Vallelong told the Daily News.
“For the past year and a half, we’ve told the city we didn’t want 12-hour tours because it’s not good for our members. It’s not good for their health, it’s not good for their home life and, because they make life-and-death decisions, it’s not good for anyone,” Vallelong said. “And now they shove 12 hours down our throats at the last minute.”
City Hall fired back against Vallelong on Saturday, claiming that the union is “lying to its members.”
“The city worked with the union and mediator in good faith, and we recently sent the union a memorandum of agreement as well as a separate agreement involving a pilot for 12-hour tours, which we made clear were both part of a global agreement to complete unit bargaining,” a city spokeswoman said. “It is completely baseless to say that any of this happened at the last minute, but unfortunately, the union continues to plant false allegations to distract from the fact that, for months, they have denied their workers of the raises they deserve.
“We remain committed to coming to an agreement, so that the brave men and women who protect public safety every day can get fair compensation,” the spokeswoman said.
Union delegates shot down the 12-hour tours at a Thursday morning meeting, said Vallelong who added that studies performed by the NYPD and the Department of Justice show police officers in leadership positions tend to make bad decisions after working 10 hours.
In 2023, the city Department of Investigation determined that lengthier shifts were associated with an increased amount of workplace injuries, vehicle collisions, risk of lawsuits and substantiated CCRB complaints but the study was for overtime hours, not extended tours with equal time off.
“Last week we had a shooting in Staten Island where people were in the crossfire,” Vallelong said. “The sergeant took control, told his officers to put their guns away and step back, and took care of the whole scene. If that sergeant’s judgment was clouded because they can’t think straight after working for 12 hours, the outcome could have been very different.”
On Thursday, the city was asked to come to the delegates meeting and discuss their 12-hour tour request, but they declined, Vallelong said.
A similar push to move officers in the city Department of Correction to 12-hour tours was pulled back earlier this month after the plan sparked anger among rank and file members.
In 2023, the Police Benevolent Association, which represents NYPD police officers, agreed to 10- and 12-hour tours in their contract. Rank-and-file cops in 12 police precincts and 12 transit districts are currently working longer tours, union officials said.
PBA President Patrick Hendry said the extended tours, known as a “modern duty chart” are “the gold standard in law enforcement agencies around the country because they give police officers more regularly scheduled days off to decompress and spend time with their families, as well as lower commuting and child care expenses.
“The PBA is continuing to work with the department to refine the modern chart pilot program,” Hendry said. “Ultimately, the NYPD needs to fully staff the pilot program commands in order for members to receive the full benefits. That’s why we are also fighting for incentives to help relieve the NYPD’s current staffing crisis, which is destroying quality of life for cops across this city, regardless of which tours they work.”
There are currently 4,300 sergeants in the NYPD, which has about 36,000 members. By July, 1,100 sergeants will have vested their pensions and would be free to retire, said Vallelong, adding that the NYPD hasn’t promoted anyone to sergeant since January.
Twelve-hour tours are an “unrealistic” goal for sergeants who already work extra hours at the end of their shift to do department paperwork and have an hour or more commute home, union members said.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” said one Bronx sergeant who asked to remain anonymous. “We’ve said ‘no’ from the beginning, and for them to turn around and throw it on the table at the last minute is absurd.
“I guess it’s easy for people who don’t work 12-hour tours to think that this is going to work.”
The city’s sergeants haven’t had a contract in two years because of an ongoing wage disparity affecting more than 1,200 supervisors that began when the city increased the salaries of rank-and-file police officers. After the city boosted salaries of long-serving cops, the SBA union realized that many sergeants are now earning less than the officers they oversee.
Under the expired contract, the base pay for sergeants, who supervise several cops at a time while responding to 911 calls, starts at $98,000 a year and balloons to about $118,000 within five years. After the newest contract with the PBA, experienced police officers can earn about $115,000, SBA members said.
The impasse comes as the Adams administration repeatedly boasts it has successfully negotiated contracts with unions representing nearly 97% of the city’s workforce. Over the past year, the city has negotiated contracts with the Police Benevolent Association, United Federation of Teachers, United Probation Officers Association and Uniformed Sanitation Workers’ Union, to name a few.
